News Round Up – w/c 22.5.17

On Monday evening, police were called to Manchester Arena following a suicide-bomb attack at an Ariana Grande concert. The “nut and bolts” bomb exploded in the foyer of the arena where many parents had been waiting to pick up children and family members. The attack killed 22 people including children and left 64 people injured. Victims include 14-year-old Sorrell Leczkowski, mother of three Michelle Kiss, 8-year-old Saffie Roussos and an off-duty police officer.

The attacker has been identified as 22-year-old Salam Abedi. Abedi, was born in Manchester with Libyan parents and was a former University of Salford student. In an interview with the BBC, a former classmate said Abedi was “very short tempered” and would get angry at “the littlest thing”. Furthermore, he commented that Abedi was “away at random times throughout the year” and before leaving school in 2011 he became “more and more religious.”

Following the attacks and the unlikely event that Abedi was working alone, the police are investigating a wider terrorist network. The Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, said: “[Monday’s attack] was more sophisticated than some of the attacks we’ve seen before, and it seems likely – possible – that [Abedi] wasn’t doing this on his own.” Five people have currently been arrested over the bombings including Abedi’s brothers and father who are being detained in Tripoli, Libya.

Prime Minister Theresa May has raised the UK’s terror threat level to critical and has deployed military personal to famous landmarks to protect the public. Moreover, the American popstar has suspended her tour in light of the attacks as she was due to be performing at the London 02 arena on Thursday 25th and Friday 26th of May. Additionally, a minute’s silence has been scheduled for 11AM on Thursday 25th of May and at the FA Cup match (Chelsea v. Arsenal) on Saturday to show respect to the victims of this attack.

Our thoughts are with the victims and their friends and family, and any of our community affected by these attacks.

This week Taiwan has allowed same sex marriage, becoming the first country in Asia to do so. The court said that current law violated their right to equality and were unconstitutional and has given Parliament two years to remedy the issue. It is hoped that this will prompt further change in the region, particularly in Thailand. However, many are critical that believe this will create little improvement in Asia. Until 2001, China deemed homosexuality to be a mental disorder, with both men and women being pressured to get married and have children.

The U.K. economy has grown slowly than estimated in the first three months of the year. This is due to the services sector losing momentum and keeping stagnant. Many economists have predicted the economy to slow this year due to consumer spending cuts due to inflation. The current rate for UK inflation is at 2.7% which is the highest figure since September 2013. The Brexit vote of course has affected such slow growth, and the anticipation grows as to what will happen after U.K. officially leaves the EU.

80% of the economy is made up of the services sector however, the ONS has estimated that the sector only expanded by 0.25 in the first quarter of the year. The ONS has stated that the first quarter of 2017 is now thought to have been the weakest quarter of growth since the first three months of 2016

Nevertheless, the business services and finance sector continued to grow and business investment rose 0.6% in this quarter.

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